A small Pakistan army plane which was on a training mission crashed in the city of Rawalpindi. The accident left at least 17 dead, including two pilots and three crew members, and 12 injured.
Early in the morning of July 30, 2019, a King Air 350 turboprop was on a routine training mission when it crashed in a residential area of Rawalpindi, a city near the capital Islamabad which houses the General Headquarters (GHQ) of the Pakistan Army. Footage of the accident has been released online, showing the plane flying at low altitude.
Exact moment when plane crashed in Bahria Town Islamabad , it can be seen it was flying very low and ultimately crashed. #BahriaTown #Planecrash pic.twitter.com/yLONEwWKoK
— Rizwan Haider (@razi_haider) July 29, 2019
The crash started a fire that spread to several homes. “We received seventeen corps, including twelve civilians and five crew members. Twelve people were injured,” said Farooq Butt, spokesman of the relief team, adding that “all the bodies are badly burned” and thus were transferred to a military hospital for DNA identification. The wounded were taken to hospitals in the region. The fire was eventually extinguished.
The last significant plane crash in Pakistan dates back to December 7, 2016, when an ATR-42 plane belonging to Pakistan International Airlines crashed near Abbottabad, a city in northeastern Pakistan, killing all 47 people on board. The causes of the crash are still being investigated.